I was pretty young when Reagan was a thing, so I wasn't quite sure how intense his original supporters were (modulo his election results).

But, I guess it's also worth noting that he's been glorified by the GOP over and over again.

It helps to realize that most of the people "defending" the Constitution have literally never read it, and they even admit that.

Like religion, "God" is whatever the TV (and radio) people say that He is - he's so strong, he's so precious, he rides around shirtless on horseback and wrestles bears, literally barehanded, and so forth.

Such people don't care one bit what the founding fathers have to say - heck, they don't even listen to Trump Himself when he said to take the vaccine (which he invented ofc). On the other hand, May The Founding Fathers Be Praised (and other chants that sound nice).

Oh yes. As a US person it blows my mind as well. We have an unhealthy fear of changing the Constitution, despite its many amendments. Of course that also precludes changing portions of it that were clearly designed under different pretenses than currently exist (e.g. 2A, but that's a whole can of worms I'm just tired of opening at this point).

The main issue there in my view isn't actually the Constitution but the sheer division at every decision. Nothing can be changed anywhere if people can't even agree on the same facts anymore. It ultimately means the US is at a constant government standstill. Fun times.

In many ways we now feel like two different countries. The blue country with dense populations centered around either coast, and the red country with sparser population in the middle.

This is an interesting read.

What's even sillier is that they don't even respect his views and it doesn't change anything. He strongly opposed to a two-party system, yet here we are.

Correction! You non-American! You mean Waifu body pillow, they didn't use comfort girls until Abe (stick it where you can) Lincoln. God read the Decloration of Indopence!

Long is an interesting example, since he definitely did strongman Louisiana politics, but he did seem to have the working class interests at heart, where as Trump only pretends to. We didn't get to see what he would do long term, but its been argued that his presidential run, and more specifically his 'share our wealth' program forced Roosevelt even farther left in his policy.

Share the wealth proposed to put into federal law a wealth cap of 5 million for every American, with the excess used to fund what amounts to a universal basic income back in the 1930's, and didn't discriminate against minorities. It also advocated for free education, free healthcare, and a 30-hour work week.

From all the information I've seen, including the excellent Ken Burns documentary, the poor and working class of Louisiana loved Huey for legitimate reasons, while the rich and politically corrupt, who were targeted by him, absolutely hated his guts.

increasing school enrollment

He went a lot farther than that.

https://www.hueylong.com/programs/education.php

I had heard this name before, but for some reason I thought he was mostly a religious figure. Maybe that's the cultiness. Interesting that he shifted from left to right.

There have been demagogues before, with cultish followings, but they've not been anywhere near as popular as Trump.

This is pretty much where I was coming from with the post. It seems like a new thing to have something so culty be so popular in the US.

Thanks for these. Joseph Smith in particular is an interesting example. I didn't know he attempted to run for President at one time. On the Mormon side, I find it quite interesting that his religion still exists despite him being outed as a charlatan. I guess that also says something about human nature.

Lyndon LaRouche

LOL oh man I have not thought about that fool in years... I would spit on the ground when I would walk by those fools. There was a lot of them in Seattle. One time a guy took offense on me looking him in the eye and then spitting at his feet. Since I lived in the neighborhood I went home and grabbed a couple eggs and tossed them at their booth. Good times!

Interesting enough, Morgan’s widow became one of Joseph Smith’s plural wives. It’s a small country.

This is a huge reach and false equivalency. There is a difference between being a pop culture focus of a moment where you're mom was compelled to volunteer at his local election office and wear a button versus the maga bullshit that OP describes.

No. It's never been to this level, or close for that matter. Not because a candidate didn't want it, but because society maintained a basic level of decency and civil education that made today's depths impossible at scale really. Of course a huge focus of the last 50 years for Republicans has been denying access to and attacking public education to help form the undereducated and easily frightened mass that they now use to support trump. And then social media feeds and predatory news algorithms were probably the nail in the coffin to break that once held floor of civility.

Not on the same scale as trump, but there was an American Nazi party and there's the kkk. Those are probably your closest analogies in this country.

Even the attempted Trump assassination, which generated considerable tin-hat response, is now almost completely forgotten; certainly, nobody’s talking about it in mainstream forums.

Well yeah, that's how attempted assassinations work. People don't remember the ones that don't work, they remember the ones that do. If it did succeed then it would be all anyone would talk about. The outcome is what matters in these situations, and greatly changes when and how people talk about it. That's just how these things go.

I knew someone who was a Ron Paul supporter. Definitely heavily into the conspiratorial stuff. I think at the time, the movement was relatively small, so I hadn't considered that it was somewhat culty.

Thanks for these. I had never heard or Charles Coughlin. I am familiar with McCarthy, but never considered his story in these terms. It does fit.

How old are you, if you don't mind me asking? Because elections were not like this when I was younger. I'm middle-aged.

I guess that depends on your age. Even for some of the most contested elections in my lifetime (e.g. Bush v Gore 2000), supporters of either side did not have the kind of rabid quality that so many have now.